


spill the coffee, not the tea

by visualodds



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Angst, Exes meet again, M/M, Onghwang, Reuniting After Years, divorced!ong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 11:19:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16345721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/visualodds/pseuds/visualodds
Summary: both 35 and not married, seongwu meets minhyun again after a decade as the exes spill the last ten years of their lives to each other over brunch





	spill the coffee, not the tea

Seongwu stands in front of the glass door, his right arm bent so he could carry his long, beige, and thick trench coat. It was a wrong decision to wear one on an unexpectedly hot, autumn day in Seoul, the type that would make your sweat stick to your clothes.

That trench coat, which he impulsively bought after receiving a call from someone he hasn’t seen in a long, tiring while. It wasn’t like dressing up for this day would change anything.

It wasn’t like he was going on a date, anyway. There was really no point to buying it.

His chest rapidly rises and sinks as he breathes heavily there, nervous of what was about to happen next. He has been standing there for the last 2 minutes that a couple has already excused their way in front of him as he was standing right in front of the door to the pub.

He gulps one last time before mustering up the courage to hold the knob and walk his way inside the place.

Compared to the temperature outside, it was neither too cold nor too hot inside. Just enough to keep him cool but not too much that he finally puts his trench coat to actual use.

He scans the pub, nothing much has changed since. The walls still have the same old paintings of San Francisco, bottles of whiskey, and a children’s park with a little boy on the side eating ice cream. _Very random_ , he always thought. On the corner is a bronze vinyl player that has been alive since forever, and this week’s menu – the only thing that has seemed to have changed. Heck, he could even recognize some of the servers behind the counter. How long has it really been?

He checks his watch. _10:59 am. Just right on time. Where is he?_

The breakfast pub was  just a small place in a hidden alley along the streets of Seoul, but even so, college students and office workers tend to hang out there a lot at night (despite being called the breakfast pub), most especially during post finals season.

Somewhere sometime during October of 2010, best friends, a couple, just two guys fooling around during college, Minhyun and Seongwu were among them.

He immediately finds Minhyun who was staring by the glass window right beside him, with his hand propped against the table, holding his phone like he was expecting a notification anytime soon.

Seongwu feels his stomach twist and turn. His lips form into a thin line. His mind goes blank. He has not seen this man in 10, long years.

But he still looks the same way he did 10 years ago, in the airport at 4 am. His eyes watery and his nose red, Minhyun wasn’t the type to cry in front of someone else. But he was right there, in the place where he sees Seongwu for the last time before he leaves for another part of him. _Promise me you’ll call. Don’t go around fooling with other people. We’ll get through this, right? It’s just for a job. You’re coming back soon, right? I love you._ And now, he was sitting right there, his face still as cold and stoic. A statue. Fox like eyes, high bridged nose, soft pink lips. A fashion statement of sophistication and class. A face that will make you think of classical and jazz music. Hwang Minhyun.

  


 

“Hey.” Seongwu takes the empty seat in front of Minhyun.

He jolts slightly from his seat, shocked by the sudden greeting – but mostly because he hasn’t heard this voice in a long time, too.

“I – hey. I didn’t notice you come in.” He shambles through his pocket and the menu and anything that will make him avoid Seongwu’s eyes, coming off too obviously as he does these all at once.

“I sent you a text. You’re literally holding your phone right now.” Seongwu takes a quick side glance to Minhyun’s phone.

He tries to laugh out the awkwardness between them. Or maybe it was just him.

“I, am totally not in the right state.”

“I see.”

“That’s observant of you.”

“‘Cause it’s unlikely of you.”

Minhyun pouts. “People say I’ve changed,”

“For me, not so much.” Seongwu leans towards the table.

“Care to elaborate?” He flips a pen which he found on the table with his index and middle finger.

“For one, you still look exactly the same way you did the last time I saw you which was -”

“In the airport.” Mihnyun butts in.

“Yeah, in the airport. Minus the red face and sobbing sounds, of course.”

Minhyun makes a slightly disgusted face. _Brave of him to be talking about it so lightly_ , he thought. “Technically speaking, I’m pretty much the same person so I don’t take surprise in hearing that I-still-have-the-same-face, because well, use your head Seongwu.”

“Someone’s gotten a little savage over the years,” Seongwu smirks. “And it’s not only that, you still dress like a dad. Except, well, you could be a dad and I wouldn’t know about it!” He continues to smirk, but saying those words out loud, he could feel his heart sink.

“You say that like you still don’t look like some college guy who picks up dates with cringy pick up lines.”

“To be fair, you were one of my victims.” He says with an annoying face, succeeding to make a come back right at his ex.

He snorts. _Right._ “That’s a nice way to put it.”

  
  


 

The waitress walks towards them and hands out a cup of macchiato and grape juice.

“Caramel?”

“Your favourite.”

“Always has been.” He shakes his head slightly. “It’s been 10 years and you still remember your first boyfriend’s regular order. Impressive.” Seongwu lets out a snort.

Minhyun looks at Seongwu for the first time, who was repressing a grin behind the mug as he smells the aroma of the coffee. “Of course, Seongwu. Every morning, midterms, finals, practically everyday, actually. That’s vital information. I could never forget.”

“So, anything else you’d like to order?” the waitress butts in. They almost forgot that she was still there.

Seongwu shifts his gaze from the waitress to Minhyun. “Pancakes?”

“Definitely pancakes.”

“Oh, and bacon. You like those.” Seongwu interjects.

“Actually,” Seongwu scrunches his forehead as he heard Minhyun say that. “I kinda grew an allergy on them over the years.”

“Oh? Disappointed but not surprised.God, Minhyun, you ate them every. single. day. How do you –“

“Live these days? No, Seongwu, you aren’t the first person to ask that.”

Seongwu laughs loudly. “Couldn’t blame them, really.”

“So, pancakes?” The waitress butts in again for the second time. She doesn’t mind, though. _Are they really exes?_ she even thought.

“Pancakes.” They both said in unison. They give each other a quick look and tried to suppress their loud, unpleasing chuckles right in front of the waitress.

“That’ll be in in a few minutes.” She gives them a warm smile and leaves.

 

 

The pancakes arrived just as both their stomachs started growling silently. Like the place, the recipe for the pancakes still haven’t changed. The secret to achieving that kind of soft, perfectly sculpted, and dreamy pancake was a mystery to college students Seongwu and Minhyun, and a decade and three years later, nothing has changed.

“I see, still the same brunch people we have been, hm?” Seongwu said as he held a fork on one hand and a small knife on the other.

“Same old, same old. I don’t get to do this often, so today is like an overseas vacation to me.”

“It’s more like coming home for me, frankly.” Seongwu just stares at Minhyun lovingly, who in return was happily munching on his food.

It wasn’t the taste of pancakes nor the aroma of his coffee that he was referring to, it was this sight of Minhyun eating brunch right in front of him on a 10 a.m. Saturday morning that meant home for him.

  
  


 

The brunch went easier than Seongwu thought it would be. Topics would lead from one thing to another, telling each other stories about work and everything that they’ve missed – desperately avoiding what they should actually be talking about.

“Everything just gets so overwhelming every passing year, don’t you think? I mean, you just get to this point and ask,”

Minhyun interrupts him halfway. “How did we end up here?”

“Exactly. I am so glad you said that. I mean, you spend all your life fooling around then one day you’re moving out and looking for a job then suddenly, you’re 35 and divorced. Like, what exactly am I doing? What exactly have I been doing?”

“Well that’s a quick way to briefly summarize the past 10 years of your life.” Minhyun snickers. “But oftentimes I look back to when we were in college, and, God, it was a really crazy time of my life.”

“We were young and we were crazy.”

“And we were really fools, weren’t we?”

“I was.” Seongwu said.

“We both were.”

 

“Minhyun, we haven’t seen each other in 10 years. Tell me exactly, why did you call me to meet you here?”

“Uh,” Minhyun puts back down his drink and reclines back to his chair. “I know that this might sound crazy and I probably shouldn’t be saying or thinking about this but.. remember when we said when we’re both single when we’re 35? I mean, it was stupid but I’ve been thinking about it lately and..” He pauses.

Seongwu’s mouth falls open. He laughs shortly. He cannot believe what he was hearing right at that moment. It wasn’t just a few days ago that he spent all day thinking about it and that one only.

“I - I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately too. When we said those words back then, it felt so easy and light for us but now, thinking about it.. I’ve been through so many different relationships and heck, even a failed marriage,” Seongwu’s voice was shaking as he said these words.

“But I don’t know, it’s.. it’s still you.” Seongwu stifles.

“I was just thinking about how it was such a loss that we never made it but.. we’re here now. And you were my best friend and we both know we’ve always been more than that.”

He kept on stuttering.

“I felt so crazy thinking about it but now that I know that you feel the same way too, I don’t think I feel so crazy anymore.”

Minhyun stays frozen in his seat, totally coming off guard of what he had just heard. It took a few seconds before Minhyun could register and finally think of the right words to say.

 

“I meant, I wanted to meet you because.. God, I’m so sorry that I made it look like this –“

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I wanted to see you now that we’re both 35, not because I’m single but because.. I’m getting married.”

_Oh._

“Oh.”

He sits there, embarrassed. He feels his ears turn red. Perhaps there was nothing more useful at the moment other than a pause button, or a truck to run off him right where he is.

“I - I’m.. so, so sorry. God. Right, _of course_! You’re getting married and I was blabbering things. I’m so sorry, I hope you don’t think I’m.. Look, I don’t really feel that -”

“It was a misunderstanding. I’m sorry, Seongwu. I really am.”

“No, you’re misunderstanding me.” He attempts to laugh it out, trying so hard not to make it come off as a lie (and eventually, miserably failing). “I hope you don’t think through what I said because I was just.. plainly blabbering about my random thou-“ Seongwu stopped halfway. “You’ve found someone already.”

“I - well, yeah. I, I guess I have.” He gave a weak smile.

Seongwu just places his arms in the table, not tapping against it with his fingers or doing anything random. He just stays still there as he nods, giving Minhyun a vague and bittersweet smile.

  
  


 

Minhyun and Seongwu run as fast as they can towards the waiting shelf by the bus stop. They were soaking wet as they reach there. Seongwu really underestimated the weather of Seoul today, from soaking wet because of his dripping sweat to soaking wet because of the dripping rain. It was the wrong day to decide not to bring an umbrella with him.

They stand beside each other, facing front as they wait for a bus that was not jam-packed to arrive.

“Look, Minhyun. I know it’s been a really long time ago, but I just wanted to let you know this. I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done in the past – for just leaving you without a word. That thing I did, it fucked me up so bad, because when I let a day go by without talking to you, then that.. that day’s just no good, and I hope that the person you spend the rest of your life with realizes that.” He pauses.

“I was an idiot for letting those days happen. I was an idiot for letting you go.” He turns his head and locks his gaze at Minhyun’s face.

Minhyun shifts his look from the street across them to Seongwu who standing beside him, his eyes intently staring at him. “We were both idiots for letting each other go.”

 

“Are you not gonna ask me about him?” Minhyun looks down to the floor and asks.

Seongwu laughs to himself. “Then can I ask you something?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you happy right now? With the person you’re marrying?” He did not know what answer he was expecting, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to hear it, but he kept staring at Minhyun’s face, fixing his eyes on him, and him only.

He didn’t know what was going on in his mind, but he suddenly had this realization - this peak of surging emotions.

He wasn’t doing it for anything else; not out of promises long forgotten, not out of obligations, not even split second hesitations. It was all out of the spur of the moment, out of what he truly wanted - and more than anything else as of that instant, that minute, that nanosecond - he just wanted to love Minhyun, even if he had to do it from afar.

 

“Yeah.” Minhyun turns his head to face the street across them again.

 

“Then that’s all I need to know.”

**Author's Note:**

> just to add: thank you for reading, and im sorry if.. well, it ended that way. but hey! i was watching this show a week ago and remembered it had this cut part towards the ending and i thought ooh.. onghwang. 
> 
> probs not the best decision to make onghwang out of my notp in the show... but the angst. hehe
> 
> anyways, hope you enjoyed it a bit! or atleast i hope it made you Feel things ((sweats at the comments))


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